Sunlight's Bane/ Geist
Split 7"

Good fuckin’ lord my ears!  That’s praise by the way.  This two-way grindcore orgy is some of the foulest, filthiest, fastest and most fucked up stuff I’ve heard in a long time.  You get your organs embalmed twice; a pair of incisions by Michigan’s manic lords of grind, Sunlight’s Bane (formerly known as Traitor) and two chop shop drops from England’s hardcore thrash grinders Geist.  Even with a total of four tracks all told on this 7” inch, you’ll need a rest and some time alone to spend shaking in the throes of musical anxiety withdrawals in the corner of your bedroom with a razorblade held in your shaking hand when this EP is done playing.

Sunlight’s Bane opens side A with “指詰め” which to the best of my Internet translation abilities adds up to “Finger Amputation.”  I can speak with 100% authenticity that these guys don’t fuck around and are one of the most intense, chainsaw your dick off grind bands I’ve heard in a long time.  The whole thing is a barely tangible cacophony of nail on an ear canal speed riffs, horrifically blasting drums, growled/screamed/shouted vocals and even a gnarly crust punk mosh break in the second half to introduce some element of songwriting.  Make no mistake about it, I got into grind for the unbridled pain and suffering in the music and when done right it still gives me all I need on a bad or good day.  Their second offering “Spoke the Cancerous Void” is less of a straight grind ball-squeezer than it is the bastard child of grindcore that’s been Frankenstein spliced with super high-pitched black metal sneers and frosted over riffs that sound like Benümb meets Darkthrone.  The latter half of the song is where things really, really get serious with a lurching Celtic Frost doom groove raped by dissonance and vomiting death metal vocals completely jettisoning the band’s brand of ugly into another stratosphere.  I’ll certainly be checking out the full album on Bandcamp based on the strength of this stuff (hopefully buying it if I ever get any gotdamn money!).

If you were hoping for a reprieve with Northern England’s Geist you can practically go fuck yourself.  They’re a little bit more controlled with roaring caveman vocal barks, barely coherent thrash riffs, traditional crust punk d-beat action, scraping solos and vicious hardcore breakdowns transmitted from the grind side of the tracks on their first jam “Gold Sores.”  They’re a different trip (slightly) than Sunlight’s Bane on this twofer but they sure fit the bill.  “Location Data” reminds me of subhuman punk scummers like Artimus Pyle, Dropdead, Bread and Water and Finland’s unhailed bastard crust sons Selfish; and the tunes sound all the better for it.  There are more than enough grinding sexual harassments here for those punk fans that say fuck you to the wimpy shit and want to see how many fists in the face they can take in a real DIY pit.  Well, you’re gonna be like a pig in shit here if that’s your masochistic style in life.  If you dug Solanum’s most recent output you should find Geist kindred spirits as well.

I’ll eat this up all day long like delicious puke on a plate if you serve it to me.  I’m a crust/grind head for life and I’ll never change, even though the seeds of doom and psychedelic rock were planted at an early age.  If you live and die for this stuff, I’m afraid to say you’re a damn fool for not picking this up!

[Visit the band's website]
Written by Jay S
September 30th, 2016

Comments

  1. Commented by: Nick Taxidermy

    I like the Geist stuff here, but HOLY FUCK Sunlight’s Bane have something going for them. Really gnarly.


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